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Labour and the Conservatives have never been particularly hospitable
homes for their moderate, centrist members.
Corralled within an insulated party bubble consisting mainly of true
believers, the moderate members have often been regarded as potential betrayers,
consensual minded types who occasionally find common ground with their
opponents; worse, as people who seem too willing to question the orthodoxies of
their chosen tribe and challenge some of their heart-held beliefs. What kept them going was the belief that
their party leaderships, whatever they said in public, often shared their own
centrist, outward-reaching attitudes. In
a sense they had to, for how else could they expect to govern except with the
support of some of that part of the electorate which didn’t traditionally identify
with their party? So for decades in the past
century or so, the two parties were, for the most part, led by mainstream
centrists.
Since 1945, the Labour party has had o…

1. Theresa May hasn’t actually called a general
election yet. She can’t. The Fixed Term Parliament Act leaves that
decision with the House of Commons, so in reality the fate of this putative
election lies with the other parties (see Lord Norton's short sharp analysis). If
Labour – as Corbyn has asserted – supports the call, along with the SNP and the
Lib Dems, then the one thing they cannot do is accuse May of putting party
interest before country. The Act no
longer allows her to do that. Instead,
it makes a 2/3rds majority of MPs responsible instead. Murmurings of turkeys and early Christmases
spring to mind, and I do wonder if all Labour MPs are going to sign up to
Corbyn’s suicide pact tomorrow. If they
do, then for more than a few it will be a means to hastening their unloved
leader’s end. 2.2. Most forecasts – actually all forecasts – give the
Tories a whopping likely majority. This
is pretty solid, and it will take a small political earthquake to dislodge the Tory a…